Interim Raiders Head Coach Rich Bisaccia addressed the media Wednesday, opening his remarks with this statement:
"First of all, we want to express our sincere condolences to the victim's family. A person lost their life yesterday morning and we think it's important to keep the focus on that as we talk about this tragic event. We're deeply saddened for everyone affected, especially the victim's family. That being said, we love Henry Ruggs and want him to know that. His terrible lapse in judgment of the most horrific kind, it's something that he will have to live with the rest of his life. The gravity of the situation is not lost on anyone here and we understand and respect the loss of life."
More from Bisaccia:
"To be perfectly frank, I don't really know if I can put into words the emotional feelings that certainly I went through, and certainly I can't speak for our players or our coaches, or our owner or our organization. I just know that for me as a parent and a person that cares about young people and that deals with young people every day, I really don't know if I can quantify what the emotions are. ... I think there [are] two separate entities: There is Henry Ruggs the football player, who is no longer a part of the Raiders, and then Henry Ruggs the person, who is certainly going through what he is going through and is going to have the pay the consequences for the actions."
On the future:
"There is no blueprint for this. There is no handbook that they give you for the obstacles that you occur, whether you're a parent, whether you're a teacher ... I just think we all lean on each other in there and there [are] a lot of other coaches on the staff that have a lot of experiences. We have players that have gone through other things, so I think we've done a good job of communicating with each other. We've tried to give the best resources that we have to our players within (Director of Player Engagement) Montelle [Sanders] and (Team Clinician) Jean [Fajardo] and people in their department, and then certainly, what we've done as coaches."
